Public Address | Cafe | OnPoint: The reasonably seedy underbelly

kmont

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:10:08 +1300

How fun! I guess you know this by now but if you want to find internet just look for the katakana for manga and 9 times out of 10 bamm it will be manga cafe with internet.
Have fun.

Keith Ng

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:58:24 +1300

If you are still in Kyoto there is a giant cinema complex style internet cafe in a basement in one of the main streets. There are showers, sunbeds, a giant manga library, slippers, robes, food, toothbrushes.....and not so much with the porny atmosphere.

Do you mean the one under Sanjo…

Jim Cathcart

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:09:23 +1300

Keith,

You can actually stay all night in the Popeye internet cafe for about 2500-3000 yen. Apparently, there is a sub-culture of "freeters" (Japan's lost generation) doing just that while they work for a pittance in the service industry. I also hear that high school runaways use them as lodging.…

kmont

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:54:36 +1300

Yeah the Virgin Megastore's free internet was awesome, top of a skyscraper looking out over the city streaming bfm for free, my friend and I took a photo of ourselves against the skyline on our cellphone and sent it in to the station. We squealed like schoolgirls when we got…

Joanna

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:23:11 +1300

Do they still have Zest Mexican restaurants? There was one near Harajuku (unless I'm getting it confused with the Italian place La Boheme which was owned by the same company) and there was a much bigger branch somewhere that was kept cool by a giant phterodactyl that flapped its wings.

linger

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:57:32 +1300

kowhai: would that be the Fonda de la Madrugada in the Villa Bianca?
From review in Metropolis 691:

"Tokyo’s best Mexican restaurant is also the best place to find icy cold beers from the finest brewers south of the border. Sample favorites like Corona, Tecate and Dos XX along with…

linger

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:40:33 +1300

oh, yeh — the larger branches of HMV and/or Virgin Megastore also used to offer free internet (you'd have to sign the register and book a time, but no charge). (But I'm not sure if that's still true. Haven't seen a Virgin store for a few years, they may have…

kmont

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:36:00 +1300

Linger, good Mexican can be found in Harajuku off Omotosando Dori in a basement. Mind you my opinion may be influenced by the giant margaritas they serve. If you need directions you need only ask.

linger

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:26:19 +1300

Random dinner is exactly what you get when you have to rely on the pictures. (Thai or Vietnamese cuisine generally travels well, even to Japan, but I've heard Tokyo described as "the place where bad things happen to good Mexican food", and my experience bears that out: dishes that looked…

kmont

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:25:54 +1300

If you are still in Kyoto there is a giant cinema complex style internet cafe in a basement in one of the main streets. There are showers, sunbeds, a giant manga library, slippers, robes, food, toothbrushes.....and not so much with the porny atmosphere.
Mmmm soothing, it was really hot outside…

Public Address

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:25:54 +1300

Discussion from blog post.